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Thank you to everyone emailing me their fun recipes!
Since it's Fourth of July week, I thought I would share a fun cocktail!
It's a take on my old school favorite popsicle the BOMB POP!

Ingredients 1 cup sugar1 cup water2 ounces vodka2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice4-6 cups ice4 ounces blue raspberry vodka3 ounces cherry vodka
Instructions To make a simple syrup, combine sugar and water and heat in a small saucepan until sugar dissolves. Cool completely in refrigerator.In a blender add clear vodka, lime juice, 2 ounces simple syrup, and 1½ cups of ice; blend on high until it reaches a "slush like" consistency, adding more ice if necessary. Pour into a container and place in the freezer. Next, in the blender add blue raspberry vodka, 2 ounces simple syrup, and 1½ cups of ice; blend on high until desired consistency is reached, and pour into a container and place in freezer. Then, in the blender add cherry vodka, 2 ounces simple syrup, and 1½ cups of ice; blend until…

Okay, I'm really not, but it's been fun growing our first vegetable garden!Six years ago I had a wake up call after a physical. My doctor called after the blood results came back and told me I had high blood pressure and bad cholesterol was bad and good cholesterol was bad...all around BAD!

I come from a long blood line of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, heart transplant, artery disease, high blood pressure, brain aneurysm ...the list really could go on and on. Yep...I'm a walking time bomb.
My doctor was hoping it could be food related and what I was consuming. So instead of going on medicine right away, I went to a nutritionist.
Interestingly enough the nutritionist asked me to write down everything I put in my mouth for a week. My kids were much younger then and I would eat all their junk left overs like gold fish, fries, nuggets, anything!
After a week the nutritionist told me I needed to learn how to eat properly and sent me to Weight Watchers! Yep..you read that ri…

My son, Austin, is in full college mode. Since my husband works out of the home and I'm home working (obviously my work travels), I'm putting the final college visit plans together. We are traveling a few places with over night stays since the lacrosse teams want to "talk" to us and show him around the campus. We are also getting ready for all the lacrosse camps he is doing this summer, starting next week!

What are you doing this weekend?
Let me know in the comments to win a Kappes mystery box!

As an author, I want my story to be GREAT, FANTASTIC and strike a relationship with the reader so the reader will come back for more.

But the obstacle is how to reach that reader!
When I first started out there was something that I knew I had to had in order to reach you. . .the reader. . .A GREAT COVER!!
I was a new author and who really wanted to take a chance on me? But I had a great cover with a pink dog on it.

Amazon
Cute right?? It still happens to be one of my favorite covers! I had gotten so many compliments on the cover, so I knew I was on to something.

After that, I spent just as much time on my covers with my cover artist as I had writing the novels.

The cover on the left is my
self published cover of
A GHOSTLY UNDERTAKING before I sold it to HarperCollins.
The one on the right is from my publisher, HarperCollins.Amazon

I LOVE both of them and thrilled I have cover control/advice with my traditional covers. The latest novel in the Magical Cures Mystery Series, A CHARMING FAT…

I love being an author—I love sending my own experiences into
a spiral and seeing how I can use the bones of the events to challenge my main
characters. Especially when it comes to pushing the bounds in my Bodies of Art
Mysteries series. The paces I put Laurel and Jack through—all in the name of
saving art masterpieces—is a blast to write.

This
series is my “running away from home” writing. The first book, COUNTERFEIT
CONSPIRACIES, is mostly set in London, my favorite city in the world, and I use
personal photos to find tricks and traps for Laurel’s world. See the skyscraper
shots below? Notice the egg-shaped building on the far right? In a scene where my
characters zip through London streets, trying desperately to escape the bad
guys, Laurel mentions that skyline and building.

It’s called the Swiss Re building. Google using the search
question “What is the London building that looks like a Faberge egg?” and
you’ll find that hundreds (and maybe thousands) of people have googled the sam…

What on earth is this TASTY TUESDAY? Well.... I have a little secret. So criss-cross applesauce promise and poke a needle in your eye? Pinky swear?!

Okay!

I have a new mystery series coming out in 2016 that is a straight cozy! I don't have the dates yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

It's based on a woman who buys a bed and breakfast on the east coast. That is about all I can say *evil grin*
I want to start collecting recipes to use in the book and a possible cook book! You will get credit in the acknowledgements of course! It can be any recipe, including cocktails, coffee, desserts, meals, anything!

Every Tuesday, I'm going to post one of my own recipes. Each week, leave a recipe in the comments section and each week, I will pick a winner!

OKAY....It's the beginning of the week, which means new beginnings and time to make a confession.
My name is Tonya Kappes and I LOVE emojis!!!!

I even love to use them at the end of sentences and not punctuation. I know it drives people crazy, but I can't help it. It just adds a little spice to my sentences and I think they are fun! I'm all about the fun!!!
Confession time! What silly confession do you have? One lucky comment will win a Kappes cup that changes colors!

Yesterday's blog on journaling really made me think about Pinterest. I'm not sure if you "pin" but I do. In the beginning I used it to create vision boards for each book and a board about things that amused me. I have to admit that some of the 'pins' I was pinning on my amuse me board were not so nice and sometimes pinned with someone in mind *evil grin*
I KNOW! SO WRONG and so not me! In fact, those pins made me a little sad after I would pin one, making Pinterest a not so fun "social tool" for me.

I decided to take back my emotions! I deleted any and all negative pins and only focused on pins that made me smile from joy that bubbled deep in my soul or pins to make other people feel better about themselves. After I changed my attitude toward the pin and used it to feed my soul, other pinners started to follow those happy/joyful/uplifting boards. I have even gotten several messages about how they know they can go to any of my boards …

Yep.... As you know I have been a blogger for many years but decided to stop a year ago. Why? Well, I was not sure how much the blog was working for me or if anyone was really paying attention to it.
Here is what I learned from my hiatus:
1) I missed not writing this daily blog. It kept me writing, whether about everyday life or even just writing about what I was working on. Sometimes for an author, sitting down and actually writing is the hardest part. When you get into a routine of writing a blog post, it jump started my writing for the day. So here I am!

2) I missed the interaction between me and you! Writing is a very lonely activity. Of course I have all the fun characters fighting over time in my head, but it's not the same. I have gotten to know each and every one of you. I can tell you something about you when I meet you and I love that connection. It was the connection to you that got me writing in the first place.
3) Where will we be if social media ever decided to ch…